Thapoli-Naglfar War
﻿'Thapoli-Naglfar War' was one of the fiercest conflicts ever occurred in Midgard, sparked by Naglfar who sought to subjugate Thapoli and the rest of Midgard under Jötnar's reign, which spanned from the 18th Century (around the same year where Golden Age of Magic began) before officially ended in 20th Century (1930s). The conflict itself served as the plot point of The Rise of Luna Nova Valkyries, the first entry of Little Witch Academia: Witches of Midgard. History Prologue: The Beginnings After amassing enough power throughout centuries of preparations to conquer Midgard, Naglfar launched a series of unprovoked attacks and sieges upon settlements inhabited by humans and Pomokai Holoholonas alike around Thapoli during the Golden Age of Magic to declare war on those who followed the ways of Nine Olde Witches. Throughout the attacks, Naglfar made the eradication of Pomokai Holoholonas of Hoddmimi's Holt the utmost priority, condemning their existence for being remnants of Great Lindworm, legendary serpent who helped vanquishing Loki during the heat of Ragnarök. Acolytes of Naglfar were confident that they can undo everything Nine Olde Witches built for humanity and their enemies were helpless to stop them. When the open conflict began however, the pagans were proved wrong. Experiments conducted by best witch-blacksmiths of Thapoli on Solais metal had given the rise of elite warriors called Valkyrie Corps. The group, alongside their male equivalent Drekherjar Corps. and the rest of Warband of Thapoli, launched several counterattacks against opposing forces to control the situation. But Naglfar forces still had advantages over them, having pitted once peaceful Pomokai Holoholona tribes against one another in a civil war by either destroying or taking away their homes and food supply, inciting infightings among themselves and worse, forcing them to raid neighboring human settlements just to survive. Fortunately for Thapoli, Naglfar's hubris was what ultimately shaped strongest allies among very races the cult despised. Chapter 1: The Battle of Hoddmimi's Holt Chapter 1-1: Skirmish at Gardar the Terrible's Outpost German the Eikthyrnir, Asger the Ratatoskr, Jalk the Slidrugtanni, Fjolnir the Heidrun, Pongo the Geri-Freki, Thekk the Huginn-Muninn, and Harr the Vedrvolnir, were a band of young Pomokai Holoholonas who lost their family and home by the war. Out of the seven friends, only Asger who remember who and what his family looked like before Acolytes of Naglfar killed them all before his eyes, leaving him embittered and full of rage. Dismayed to see other members of their kind had been reduced into savages, they descended from the mountains, vowing to put an end to Naglfar's atrocities against them once and for all. Aiming to unite their people against a common enemy, Harr and his companions began their quest by invading an outpost belonged to Gardar the Terrible, a ruthless Slidrugtanni who had pillaged countless villages. Using their wits alone, they even their odds against Gardar's minions who guarding the outpost and finally confronting Gardar himself just as he and his followers about to feast upon stolen foods from their latest raids. "What you've done is wrong. You feast, while all around you, people starve!", Jalk called out to Gardar. "And you are insolent fools. I'm surprised you managed to outsmart my men, but your luck ends here!", Gardar said before nodded to his goons, prompting them to attack the young Pomokai Holoholonas. The brawl between the seven friends and Gardar's goons started anew, but the rogue Slidrugtanni unexpectedly fled from the fight in the middle of the commotion, leaving his minions to fend for themselves. But Jalk soon noticed him and started to give chase much to Harr's chargin, as Gardar might had tricks to shake off his pursuer in his sleeve. Taking some of scattered banana peels nearby with him, he catched up with the two and spilled them right in front of the cowardly Slidrugtanni, causing him to slip and fall. Finally cornered, Gardar ultimately forced to fight two young Pomokai Holoholonas who eventually defeated him in combat, ending his reign of terror once and for all. To the seven friends' delight, this heroic act not only earned them respect from Gardar's own followers who fed up with their leader's depraved ways, but also from a squadron of Warband soldiers led by the Valkyrie Thrasla who were sent to stop Gardar. With their newfound allies, Harr and his companions continue stopping the infighting among Pomokai Holoholona tribes of Hoddmimi's Holt. Chapter 1-2: Punitive Expedition at Meinbalkr As they continue the fight to unite their people, Harr and his allies learned about a Huginn-Muninn named Hagen the Dreaded who betrayed his own race for Naglfar by aiding the evil cult kidnapping young Pomokai Holoholonas and forced them to work as their slaves in his heavily guarded fortress called Meinbalkr. To add insult to injury, Hagen had the younglings mass-producing artifacts of dark magic which he sold to the warring Pomokai Holoholona tribes in hopes of them destroying themselves with his twisted designs. Outraged by this crime, Harr and his friends launched a punitive expedition for the fortress. Thrasla offered to aid the seven friends to deal the threat, but they refused due to the depraved Huginn-Muninn was their responsibility. Nevertheless, Thrasla gave Harr Thunder Blade, a double-bladed weapon forged from metal infused with the magic of Mjölnir, Thor's legendary hammer. Arriving at Meinbalkr, a grim fortress decorated with heads of multiple creatures on spikes, the band conducted the reconnaissance on the location for weeks before commencing the attack. After gathered enough intel, they launch a punitive assault from both inside and outside: Thekk and Harr would neutralize the sentries around the keep whereas Asger sabotaged every single one of traps and wards, so they ended up harming the guards instead of intruders and prisoners as the rest waited for Harr's signal. As they did, Harr summoned a ferocious thunderstorm around the area as a distraction with his new weapon. Once the three had done enough damage, Harr signaled the rest of his comrades to overrun the keep by having Asger opening the gate from the inside. Dispatching the remaining guards, the seven friends liberated all prisoners and evacuated them to safety before eventually came face-to-face with Hagen who finally revealed himself. Harr and his companions fought Hagen, but the rogue Huginn-Muninn proved himself stronger than either of them imagined, as he turned into a powerful monster enhanced by ancient magic he learned from Naglfar. At that moment, Thekk realized that Hagen was drawing strength from five Jötnar Runestones placed around the keep, all of which must be destroyed in order to defeat him. Upon informed about Hagen's source of powers, Harr summoned a lightning bolt to destroy the first one, angering the corrupted Huginn-Muninn that he failed to realize his opponents' friends had done the short work on three more of his Runestones; Asger and German destroyed the second whereas Jack the third and Pongo and Fjolnir the fourth. Harr then destroyed the last runestone by blasted Hagen towards it with a lightning blast, killing him in process. The words about the seven friends' deeds, including the successful punitive expedition at Meinbalkr itself, soon spread throughout the Hoddmimi's Holt, inspiring the rivaling Pomokai Holoholona tribes to look past their differences for the common good. They, along with Harr and his companions, formed Sword of Laeradr, an order of warriors exclusively comprised of their kind dedicated to protecting Midgard from threats. Around this time, the seven friends decided to call themselves Wrath of Thor, inspired by the origin of the weapon wielded by Harr and its role in vanquishing Hagen the Dreaded. Chapter 1-3: Liberation of Mimir's Tree Mimir's Tree is a colossal tree which considered to be sacred by Pomokai Holoholonas of Hoddmimi's Holt, for it was the very place the first generations of their kind gathered by Nine Olde Witches as well as the same place that once a safehaven for the first king and queen of Thapoli, Lifthrasir and Lif, during Ragnarök. Following Naglfar's occupation however, the sacred tree was desecrated and became part of an ominous stronghold at which the evil cult conducted experiments to develop magical bioweapons for their cause. As such, it was their duty to retake the important landmark of their homeland and why they now united under one banner. With help of the Thapolian wizard Farmatyr and Asger, Harr sabotaged the mechanism that controlling the gate, demolishing it and allow the allied forces of Thapoli's Warband and Sword of Laeradr to pour into Mimir's Tree. The three regroup with their comrades in time to see Naglfar's High Priest, Erik the Ageless, unleashed the cult's magical bioweapons, Apollyons, upon his oppositions. Things looked dark, as many brave warriors from the allied forces were slain. However, Wrath of Thor, the seven friends who had made it this far to liberate their home, refused to give up without a fight. Combining their magic, they turn the tables by magically bringing the trees around Mimir's Tree to life and had them decimating Apollyons and demolished the entire stronghold, securing the allied forces' victory and restoring the sacred colossal tree. The Liberation of Mimir's Tree was the very historical event in Hoddmimi's Holt that earned Wrath of Thor recognition as heroes and eventually, legends throughout magic community. However, the band were not without controversies, as the more peaceful Pomokai Holoholonas believed their actions brought a bad impression about their people whom were originally peaceful beings who abhorred senseless violence. Even so, such matter was the least of their concerns, since Wrath of Thor had to continue the fight until they and the Warband of Thapoli defeated Naglfar and their patron Jötnar. Chapter 2: The Battle for Thapoli Chapter 2-1: Battle at Horgsholt Fortress The rise of Sword of Laeradr and liberation of Hoddmimi's Holt only steeled Naglfar's resolve to destroy their enemies along with the legacy of Nine Olde Witches, and so the war became more ferocious than ever. Their Acolytes had constructed the Gate of Helheim to summon the army of the dead, and both Sword of Laeradr and the Warband of Thapoli realized their alliance was crucial to save Midgard. However, stopping Naglfar won't be easy with the Gate being constructed within the fortified walls of Naglfar's Horgsholt Fortress. As Acolytes of Naglfar were about to complete the Gate of Helheim, neither of them were expecting that their enemies would attack alongside strange machines that bested their defenses while multiple battering ram demolishing every single one of the gates of Horgsholt Fortress. During the siege, one of the battering rams was demolished by two Frost Jötnar who then confronted Jalk and Fjolnir as they about to destroy another. The two almost overwhelmed by the Jötnar's might until German and Asger join the fight, at which they swiftly decimated their foes. Around this time, Pongo began to question whether controversies that surrounded him and his fellow Wrath of Thor members were justified, and asked Harr whether there's a way to solve the conflict without the need to spill each other's blood, a question which left the Vedrvolnir unsure whether he had the correct answer. Just then, Thekk appeared and notified that the alliance had managed to breach through the gates, prompting the three to notify the rest of their comrades to join the fray. The seven friends soon confronted the guardian of the Gate, the Goddess of Death Hel herself. Two young eikthyrnirs suddenly appeared out of nowhere and attempted to attack her before Pongo stopped the two, only to witness them swiftly blasted aside with the Daughter of Loki's miasma blast. Evacuating injured young warriors, Pongo soon rejoin the fight against the Goddess of Death just as she summoned Garm, her skeletal hound. The Sword of Laeradr's fight against the Goddess of Death and her pet proved to be difficult as their adversary possessed the power over death and disease; they were unable to fully engage both Hel and Garm, as they had to deal her undead thralls all while evading contact from the Jötunn's conjured miasma. The seven friends' only reprieve was how easily it was to kill the undead warriors as long as they stayed vigilant. To made matter worse, even though the alliance gained the upper hand, the Gate of Helheim was eventually completed, threatening to overrun Midgard with an army of the dead. When the hope seemed lost, the Valkyrie Thrasla sacrificed her life to destroy the Gate of Helheim, causing it to collapse into an unstable vortex that sucked in the Goddess of Death along with Garm and most of unfortunate Acolytes of Naglfar as well as leveling the entire fortress in process to the ground. Most of the allied forces, including Sword of Laeradr, managed to escape from an impending doom, though their victory was a bittersweet one. The alliance lost many of their best warriors including Thrasla herself and two young eikthyrnirs that attacked Hel earlier, the latter that had succumbed to their injuries. Scouring for possible survivors in the doomed fortress, Pongo and his friends found a diary belonged to a fallen Acolyte which, to his surprise, expressing its owner's both sincere love to his family and the dream to ensure their happiness. Studying the diary while continuing the search, the Geri-Freki stumbled upon an abandoned doll among the wreckage along with the dead body of little girl nearby. Initially suspecting her to be one of unfortunate prisoners of war who failed to evacuate the fortress, further investigation revealed that the little girl was in fact, the daughter of very Acolyte whose diary now on his paws. This shocking revelation disgusted Pongo that he left Wrath of Thor for "the more reasonable side", much to the dismay of his comrades. Chapter 2-2: The Skirmish at Fjarora Outpost Following Pongo's departure, the Wrath of Thor decided to go ahead in their fight against Naglfar where they learned that House of Cavendish had sent their best warriors to the field. The band at first, delighted to see descendants of one of their creators Beatrix Cavendish joined the fight against their common enemy, in which their first battle together would take place in Fjarora, a fortified outpost that Naglfar utilized to build their enchanted siege engines. However, both groups soon realized that they had clashing methods when it comes about defeating the enemy. The Warband and Sword of Laeradr first had Thekk sneaking into the outpost to sabotage the gate, allowing his comrades and emissaries of House of Cavendish to storm into the area. He and the rest of Wrath of Thor soon join the fight where they destroyed the newly created siege engines along with equipment used to create them, all while engaging those who unfortunate enough to get into their way. It was then the band discovered that the House of Cavendish emissary didn't use lethal force against their foes unlike them: Rather than killing their enemy on sight, the emissaries only incapacitated Acolytes and even healed the injured among their enemies before bringing them all into Warband's custody. Of course, Wrath of Thor greatly objected the emissaries' methods out belief that Naglfar won't change their ways. Before the tension between both groups escalated further, Pongo unexpectedly appeared and defended the methods of House of Cavendish's emissaries, all while confessing why he left Wrath of Thor in the first place; he realized how much the band changed to the worst throughout the war, and called them out for seeing violence as the sole means to end the war, which only made controversies that surrounded them more and more justified. When Asger attempted to execute the already surrendered Naglfar chief against the emissary's wishes, Pongo stepped in to block the ratatoskr's blow, provoking a brief fight between two comrades until Diane Cavendish, the leader of Cavendish family's emissaries and Ice Sword Valkyrie at that time, broke up their fight. Pongo then took that incident as the confirmation of his belief. As the emissaries of House of Cavendish and Wrath of Thor about to go on separate ways in the aftermath of the Skirmish at Fjarora Outpost, Pongo told his former comrades-in-arms what he had learned from the war before joined the former group: War has transformed them into beasts. Chapter 2-3: Wolfwood Holocaust Out of many clans of magical families who joined Naglfar, Gray Wolf Clan was regarded by many to be the cruelest and savagest. It was this very clan who nearly pushed Pomokai Holoholonas into the brink of extinction by turning them against each other through destroying their food sources, making them the greatest adversary of the community of Hoddmimi's Holt. Or so Wrath of Thor led to believe, as they already consumed by rage and hatred towards the one who nearly eradicated their people. Being the wisest of the band, Pongo chose to leave Wrath of Thor due to not wanting to stoop as low as them, but nevertheless kept an eye on them and warned his comrades about consequences of the path they chose. By the time Harr and his fellow Wrath of Thor grasped the meaning of his wisdom, it was already too late... The day Wrath of Thor finally carry out their long-awaited retribution had finally arrived, with the band and a small army of Sword of Laeradr warriors surrounded Wolfwood, a heavily fortified village which served as both the home of Gray Wolf Clan and Naglfar outpost, from every direction. Commencing the siege, Wrath of Thor had their army destroyed the outpost's watch towers and ley line portals, crippling its defenses and stripping its inhabitants of their sole means to escape. Harr then ordered his army to destroy the outpost and not to take prisoners, a decision which he would come to regret. Overseeing the battle, Harr witnessed how his men and his brothers-in-arms were troubled by their own brutality as they slaughtered every single one of the village's inhabitants. The only exception was Asger who, to his horror and dismay, did not differentiate between warriors and bystanders, man or woman, or even child or adult among members of Gray Wolf Clan. Rather than a victory, the battle at Wolfwood was an utter tragedy, with Harr unable to help but ashamed at how their desperation and anger had turned them into what they fought against. As he came to believe that he had slaughtered an entire clan where many of its members were innocents, Harr soon learned that there's a survivor who managed to escape the onslaught, a 6-years old little girl named Lara, which prompted Asger to give chase. Afraid that they would hurt one more innocent soul, Harr immediately flew to stop his dear friend, only to see him sharing his ration to the traumatized and half-starving young girl. The rest of his fellow Wrath of Thor then catch up with the two soon after, equally indecisive regarding the fate of the last of Gray Wolf Clan member in the light of their terrible deed. To everyone's shock, Asger opted to adopt the traumatized little girl as his daughter. Said decision was met with mixed reaction from his friends: German and Jalk supported the ratatoskr's decision while Fjolnir and Thekk voted against it. Nevertheless, they came to an agreement to keep the true reason for the loss of her parents a secret. Pongo, upon hearing this news, later speculate that Asger's said decision was not simply from a sudden change of heart, but rather the result of post-traumatic stress from his and the rest of Wrath of Thor's childhood experiences in war. Chapter 3: Aftermath The Woodwolf Massacre was proved to be not just the worst of the conflicts throughout Thapoli-Naglfar War due to alleged extinction of Gray Wolf Clan, but also one of crippling blows which forced Naglfar survivors into hiding. Without the Goddess of Death Hel and their greatest ally Gray Wolf Clan, the evil cult no longer stood a chance against Thapoli, let alone Sword of Laeradr of Hoddmimi's Holt. To make matter worse, remnants of once a radical cult with enough power to threaten both Thapoli and Hoddmimi's Holt became fractured into smaller factions with no clear leader, creating a lasting tension among splintered groups. Following the end of the war, Harr and his friends officially disbanded Wrath of Thor, with Harr decided to accompany Asger raising Lara and helping her regain what she had lost. Although only those from magical community were aware with the war, Thapoli-Naglfar War made a lasting impact in their world. The conflict also saw Thapoli's advancements in science, magic, and technology, as well as how Pomokai Holoholonas that initially divided into multiple clans looked past their differences to protect their common interests which culminated to the foundation of their own military force. The war also taught Pomokai Holoholonas horrors and desolation of the war in the harshest way possible. Even with help from emissaries of House of Cavendish, those who survived the conflict were never same anymore. Wrath of Thor, who were hailed as heroes despite their questionable genocide against Gray Wolf Clan, were scarred by the war as much as everyone else. They keep Lara's true lineage from the rest of the world as Asger tried his best to replace what she had lost, but sadly, they ended up failed her in a chain of tragic event which culminated to her death and resurrection as an eitr-walker before subsequently put back to rest by the reluctant Pongo. Those who aware with said tragedy however, suspecting that the eitr-walker Lara had become might still alive, planning on her exacting her vengeance on those who had wronged her and her people… Notes & Trivia *According to BSoulstone, the Thapoli-Naglfar War was partly inspired by real-life Vietnam War. Category:Terminology Category:Witches of Midgard-verse